While growing up as the youngest of six children in Southern California, Elissa Vilter watched her mother whip up simple, elegant dishes while teaching her children that a meal is more than just a recipe. Instead, it is an opportunity to create a colorful presentation and table setting. Her family became accustomed to linens, candles, silverware, and a centerpiece of some kind on their table every night. When Elissa was eight, her mother signed her up for a summer school cooking class. “It was so much fun!” states Elissa. “I still remember taking what I learned to make a taco salad and decorating our table in a Mexican motif.” By the time Elissa was twelve, her mother was encouraging her to meal plan and recipe hunt. With her mother’s guidance that fresh was best, Elissa planned weekly menus, shopped for the ingredients, and prepared the meals. But the guidance from her mother didn’t stop there. Elissa’s mother also created decorated wedding and birthday cakes, sugared Easter eggs, and corsages and boutonnieres from flowers in her garden.

When Elissa was fifteen, her father left, forcing her mother to develop a catering business out of necessity. As she began catering and baking for weddings and other events, Elissa often accompanied her to help arrange flowers and decorate the space without any idea that she was already building a foundation of skills that would one day allow her to open her own business.

After her life journey led Elissa to eventually obtain a degree in Behavior Science from Loretto Heights College in Denver, Colorado, she married her husband, Scott, and began teaching. As his military career led them all over the world and finally to Nebraska, Elissa focused on raising their three children. But everything changed five years ago when Elissa created floral arrangements and baked cupcakes for a friend’s wedding. After that friend encouraged her to not only open a floral design business but also an in-home bakery, Elissa founded EV Floral and Design in 2015 and Om Nom Nom bakery in 2019.

Elissa, whose business is generated by word-of-mouth only, contracts for about twelve weddings annually, creates flowers for proms, homecomings, and for seniors involved in athletics at a local high school; and produces floral arrangements and baked goods for ten to twelve additional events a year. Because her work comes in waves, Elissa doesn’t have typical days. “When I have an event coming up, my life gets crazy busy. When I’m not planning for a specific event, I’m answering emails, scheduling meetings with potential clients, ordering materials, and planning designs.” After visiting Diana’s Papillion Tea Shop in 2019 and asking if she could create baked goods for an upcoming event, a new relationship was formed. Today, Elissa handles all baking for the tea shop’s events and enjoys a wonderful friendship with the owner.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected her business in the short-term, Elissa is excited about the future of her businesses. “I learned long ago that this is a process and to have patience,” she adds. While pursuing her passion, Elissa has found great joy in meeting new people. “This life is all about relationships,” she says, “The people I have met have shared such amazing stories about their lives.”

Today, Elissa describes her life as content. Her support group is her family and closest friends. Her husband, also known as her official taste tester, loves it when she is baking and creating. Both of her sons have helped in delivering her arrangements to weddings, and her daughter has also helped in deliveries and setting up weddings and other events.

This passionate entrepreneur advises anyone who wants to pursue a dream to go for it and allow others to help. “It’s never too late unless you never do it,” she states.

Everyone who takes a bite of her delectable baked goods and views her beautiful floral arrangements has to be thrilled that Elissa blended all her skills and talents honed since childhood and pursued her passion for creative design and, most importantly, for making people happy.

For more about Elissa and her products, feel free to call her at (402) 541-3084.

Vicky DeCoster is a Certified Life Coach based in Omaha, Nebraska, who specializes in helping her clients both locally and nationwide to move past obstacles, create a plan for happiness, and cross the bridge of transition to find a new and fulfilling direction in life. To read more about her and her practice, visit her at crossthebridgecoaching.com.